Google Removes Privacy Regulation Feature from Android

UPDATE: Google has removed a pivotal privacy feature from its Android operating system that gave users the ability to deny permissions in and regulate information collection attempts by installed applications.

The feature, which users could control with a tool called AppOps Launcher, first appeared in Android 4.3. Just two days ago the Electronic Frontier Foundation published an article heralding the short-lived privacy control as “a huge step in the right direction.”

“Despite being overdue and not quite complete, App Ops Launcher is a huge advance in Android privacy,” wrote EFF technology projects director Peter Eckersley. “Its availability means Android 4.3+ [is] a necessity for anyone who wants to use the OS while limiting how intrusive those apps can be.”

As it turns out, Google removed the feature in Android version 4.4.2, the mobile operating system’s most recent update. When asked why, Google told the EFF that the control was an experimental one which they introduced into Android by accident. Furthermore, the search giant claimed that the permission-throttling privacy feature was breaking some of the applications it attempted to manipulate.

“That UI is (and it should be quite clear) not an end-user UI. It was there for development purposes. It wasn’t intended to be available. The architecture is used for a growing number of things, but it is not intended to be exposed as a big low-level UI of a big bunch of undifferentiated knobs you can twiddle. For example, it is used now for the per-app notification control, for keeping track of when location was accessed in the new location UI, for some aspects of the new current SMS app control, etc.”

Eckersley claims that Google opened up an enormous privacy hole by removing the feature; a hole that Android’s primary competitor, Apple’s iOS, reportedly sealed off years ago. In order to remedy the loss, Eckersley claims that Google must not only reenable the privacy control, but also add to it.

A modern smartphone is a full-blown working tool, an entertainment center and a tool to manage your personal finances. The more it can do, the more attractive it is to cybercriminals. The evidence for...

Cybercriminals go at great lengths to throw researchers off their scent, but just like in the "offline" crime world they make errors and leave peculiar traces behind, making them look a bit silly, whi...

By Maria Karnaukh Genius is often simple. Those ideas that ultimately reap millions of dollars are usually found hiding in plain view – unnoticed until their time is right. Here are several examples o...